Tag: youth in ham radio

Contest Modernization

I have an idea that I just want to get out the door before I forget.

Contest Modernization.

First of all, check out CQContest.net.

It’s kind of complicated at first, but it’s actually really cool. It’s a real-time contest score tracker. You can see the scores and band breakdowns of radio contesters in real time as a contest is going. I don’t have a users guide handy, but it behooves you to click around and see what is happening on the site. There is TONS of data and analytics on every station. I recommend getting an account so you can access anything that says “user” on the side.

Now, go check out CJ Johnson, WT2P’s YouTube Channel where he livestreams contests. They’re not very exciting, and don’t get many views. For example:

Put 2 and 2 together.

I propose Contest Modernization be a movement to publicize and further gamify ham radio contesting. The live contest score server is the “hub” and each contester can choose to livestream their operation on Twitch.tv.

If you want to do this, I suggest getting OBS (which is a free livestreaming program other Twitch gamers use) and a Twitch account, and hook up your station and PC in such a way that listeners can hear RX and TX audio as well as your voice for commentary, and see your face, your score summary, your logger, and if there’s room, a CQContest.net summary or something.

I would love to demonstrate, but I don’t have a contesting station or the time to make it happen in a short time-frame, so hopefully this post suffices and WT2P or Marty KC1CWF can do it.

I think this would be a great boon to youth engagement. Just look at Twitch.tv. Hundreds of thousands of people watching other people play video games. I think there may be a market in there for us hams too.

And if ham curmudgeons think this will cause the HF bands to be even more crowded, they’re right. IMO, they should be!

Bottom line: contesting is gaming, young people like gaming, so combine the contesting market with the gaming market, and reap the benefits.

👍

My ARRL Youth Editor Columns Are Finally Together

I took the time to collect all my ARRL youth columns into one location: Right here! The ARRL doesn’t host these columns in a central location (although I think they should be a staple of the ARRL Youth Page) so hopefully this helps.

You can also go to the Youth@HamRadio.fun page in the Blogs drop down in the menu.

The list below is chronological starting from April 23, 2011 to May 26, 2013. Unfortunately after my departure from the youth editorship, the ARRL hasn’t opened the position back up, so these are the last of their kind until further notice.

Collegiate Ham Radio is on fire today!

Today was a maelstrom of emails, reddit posts, facebook messages, ARRL articles, some more emails….all thanks to this article: http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-acting-as-catalyst-in-college-radio-club-revitalization-campaign

I posted it to the amateurradio subreddit, where it got some discussion. Then, another post, nearly simultaneously popped up on reddit regarding interest in a “University/Colleges on the Air” – of course they couldn’t call it Schools on the Air, as that would compete with the other SOTA, but that’s besides the point.

There are a lot of college and university amateur radio clubs out there, both active and defunct. There have been attempts to collect interest, either through collegiate contests or sub-contests (such as the Intercollegiate Championship that hasn’t been going on since 2011), online communities (like CollegeARC developed by Brent and Bryce Salmi from Rochester Institute of Technology K2GXT, but went defunct sometime in mid to late 2013 after they graduated), and now the Dayton Hamvention Collegiate Dinner and the Collegiate Ham Radio Operators Facebook Group.

I have great interest vested in these topics. Throughout my ARRL Youth Editorship, I poked and prodded ARRL to do more to promote amateur radio to colleges, and vice versa.  It cam in the form of free books, promotional materials, and licensing materials, but never have they showed the support they are featuring in the article.

ARRL provides a large amount of grants and scholarships totaling many tens of thousands of dollars – or more – but many of these scholarships often go unclaimed! This is because too many don’t know about them.

Promoting amateur radio in colleges is a huge untapped resource for both the hobby, and the STEM economy. Every technical job I had was resultant of something ham radio related, and it’s obvious that it the hobby has huge merits in electrical and computer engineering and computer science.

Plus, as mentioned in the article, colleges are super competitive! College football wouldn’t be a thing if they weren’t!

Although I don’t agree with the name “Ivy + Amateur Radio” as an all-inclusive invitation to colleges and universities across the world to join up, I still think the ARRL is doing collegiate ham radio a great service to show support, especially from the CEO level. After all, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

I hope to see something great come of this! Conference championships? Colleges/Universities on the Air? A yearlong QSO party for colleges? Incorporating “college” category into large ARRL contests like sweepstakes and ARRL DX? Revamping school club roundup? Tons of ideas.

Please feel free to contact me at n0ssc@arrl.net or comment below if you wish to talk college ham radio. Or send your support straight to the ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher NY2RF, himself!

 

 

 

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